I Am Slaughter - getting Dan Abnett to write the first book in a series is a good way to drag people in. He's one of the better writers in the Black Library stable. Sadly this didn't really do it for me, it felt like he was phoning it in. The Imperial Fists were kind of unrecognisable - in trying to present them as having their own identity that has evolved since the Heresy but lost in this calamity really they don't feel like any Imperial Fists we have ever known. This makes their loss not dramatic and shocking but run of the mill. We've seen any amount of minor Space Marine chapters wiped out, only the name in this one connects it to any lore we might care about. The Chromes, as a minor alien race, are similarly bland. We don't care for their loss, we're not interested in what has been destroyed as we might be in Horus Rising for example. In end this is an exercise in boredom and Abnett can do better. Predator, Prey - was better in places but worse in others. For those of us whose Space Marine journey started in the 80s Maximus Thane is a bit of fanservice. His characterisation and the world of the Fists Exemplar is pretty good, and the fighting there is good fun. But in the end its a heavy slog through, and I decided to stop there and read some other stuff for a while because Gav Thorpe and David Annandale are not names that reel me in like a fish on a hook... ( )